


A Good Place to Hide

by PunQueen



Series: Ally's List of Places [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Compound, Bucky Barnes is good with Kids, F/M, Gen, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:08:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunQueen/pseuds/PunQueen
Summary: Ally just wanted to play game of hide and seek. This wasn't what she'd had in mind.--In which the Avengers compound is attacked.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Original Character(s), James "Bucky" Barnes & Original Female Character(s), James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Ally's List of Places [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2010916
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20





	A Good Place to Hide

**Author's Note:**

> As I face a slight writer's block in my main fic, I've decided to work out this idea.

It was once again Crystal’s responsibility to watch Ally and Jacob. They were in the woods near the compound playing hide and seek, with a border of bright orange flags and spray paint marking where the kids needed to stop. A few of Crystal’s friends had joined, claiming it to be an excellent training exercise. 

One of those friends, Crystal’s boyfriend for the last eight months, had given Ally a boost into one of the trees at the forest’s edge. Cameron watched as she climbed a few more branches before commanding her to stop. He made her promise not to go any higher as he found his hiding spot in some nearby bushes. 

They waited quietly as Crystal sought them. Ally watched a ladybug climb across the tree branch to pass the time. When the lady bug flew away, she turned her attention to a spider a few branches higher than her spinning a web. Eventually the sound of moving branches and snapping twigs could be heard, and Ally grinned. She moved as close to the tree as possible. 

“A shame those dumb kids were out here,” said someone. Ally frowned. That wasn’t what Crystal sounded like. 

“Yeah, I wonder why. The girl was trained well. Too bad that doesn’t quite beat experience. And if it isn’t another…” 

Ally froze. They hadn’t looked up, so it couldn’t be her they were talking about. 

“Who are you?” asked Cameron confidently. “And what are you doing here? This is private property.” 

“That’s not any of your business, son. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll be quiet and stay here,” said the first speaker. Ally heard a click and peeked around a tree. She gasped quietly. A gun. “I’d hate to have to put this to good use.” 

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” said Cameron evenly. His hands were up. In a second, he was making a grab for the gun, disarming the man. Ally hid near the tree once more as grunts filled the air. There was no doubt about it, these were bad guys. She really hoped Cameron would win. 

Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. “Let’s tie him up to that tree,” said one of the men. “Make sure he won’t cause trouble later.” 

Ally froze. What tree? It could be any tree. What if it was her tree? She moved so she couldn’t see them, hoping the reverse worked too. A few minutes later, they began to move along. Ally looked around. She needed to go in case they came back. 

It was a high jump from the bottom branch to the ground and Ally whimpered. She needed to go though, in case the bad guys came back. She tried to remember what you were supposed to do when jumping from high places, her mom said there was a special way to do it. Ally ended up just doing it the simple way: she hung off the branch and let go. 

Her feet hit the ground first, and her knees and palms after. She cried out in pain before getting up, teary eyed. “Cameron?” She found him tied to a small tree further from her location than she’d been expecting. She whimpered and ran to him. “Cameron. Cameron, wake up.” She shook him, but he didn’t respond. Ally quickly went to the back, where his hands were zip tied. She looked around for a sharp-ish rock to break the bond with. After a few tries, the zip-tie snapped. “Cameron, wake up. Please,” she begged when he was free.

Cameron wasn’t waking up. 

This was bad. It was really bad. And Ally didn’t know where Crystal was. Or Jacob. Or anyone else.  _ I need help. I need to go find help. _ She needed to go back to the compound. But the doors were locked and you could only unlock them if you were at least a junior agent, and Ally didn’t have a key. Cameron needed to wake up so he could use his key… Or Ally could steal it. 

She shoved her hands into his hoodie pockets. Empty. It must be in his pants. Ally found his wallet in the front pocket and looked for his key. She had to hurry before the bad guys got in. 

When she finally pulled it out, she tossed his wallet onto his legs. After that, she ran to the compound as fast as she could. She pressed his key to the first door she found and ended up in a hallway. Where was she? She looked around trying to find her barings. Where could she go? What was nearby? 

The gym! The special adult gym, that was somewhere around here… Right? Ally ran down the hall, peering through windows and trying to find it. There were lots of offices. She was overwhelmed by the amount of strangers nearby. Not total strangers, she knew some of the agents, but she needed help and she needed to find someone she really knew. 

Ally spotted the glint of metal from the corner of her eye and turned towards it. Bucky! She knew Bucky and this was  _ definitely  _ an emergency. Ally ran towards him and barreled into his legs as she sought comfort. 

“What the- Ally? Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” He moved down so he could see her better, but she threw herself into his arms. 

“We were playing in the forest and there were bad guys and they hurt- they hurt Cameron and-” Flashing blue lights began to fill the hall as the rest dimmed significantly. Lockdown. Ally’s crying intensified. 

“Okay. Okay, I’ve got you sweetie,” said Bucky, picking her up as he began to walk. “How many bad guys did you see in the forest?” 

“Two. And- And one of them had a gun, but he didn’t shoot Cameron because- because Cameron stopped him. But they were fight- fighting, and they tied Cameron to a tree and he wouldn’t wake up. So I took his key because I needed to be back inside for h-help because I didn’t know where Crystal or Jacob was.” 

“You did a good job coming for help,” he praised. “Do you know what the blue lights mean?” 

“The bad guys might be inside,” answered Ally. 

“That’s right. Do you know what to do when that happens?” 

“Hide,” said Ally. “Are you gonna hide with me?” 

“No. You’re gonna hide in my office, okay?” He held her up with one arm as he unlocked and opened the door with the other, shutting it after he entered. He opened the door of a large cabinet before setting her down. Half of it seemed like some sort of closet and was, for the most part, empty. “Remember what I said about closets?” 

“They’re a bad place to cry,” she suggested, swiping her face. 

“Yep. Stay in here and be quiet. Steve or I will come get you when it’s safe,” he promised. 

“Okay,” she shuffled into the closet. Bucky closed the door and left, turning the lights out. 

Ally settled down on the closet floor, trying her best not to cry. Bucky had said he’d come back or Steve would get her out, all she had to do was sit and wait. But she was scared. There were a lot of muted noises she knew must’ve been loud to reach her hiding spot. Her hands and knees hurt. She still had the keycard she’d stolen in her hand. Cameron was still in the forest. Jacob and Crystal and her other friends, too, probably. Ally began to worry about them more with each passing second. She couldn’t stop the tears from flowing and eventually cried herself to sleep.

She stirred when she heard a slight click. “Ally? It’s Steve,” he announced. The door to the cabinet opened a few seconds later. She rubbed her tired eyes as he knelt down to her level. “Hey, sweetheart.” 

“Hi.” He was dressed in a plain shirt that looked a little sweaty and a pair of track pants. Ally didn’t let that deter her from hugging him. “Is Bucky okay?” 

“Bucky went to the forest to look for your friends,” said Steve. “Are you alright? You look a little scraped up.” 

Ally looked down to her injured hands, keeping her arms around Steve. “I jumped out of a tree earlier.” 

Steve raised his eyebrows. “You jumped out of a tree?” 

“Mmhm. Cameron helped me climb up but then the bad guys hurt him so I had to get down by myself,” she explained, resting her head on his shoulder. “It was scary.” 

“I bet it was. You’re really brave,” he complimented as he picked her up. “Why don’t we get you back home?” 

Ally nodded. “I want my dad. And my mom.” 

“I bet they’re feeling the same way, kiddo,” Steve murmured, rubbing her back. “It’ll be okay.” 

Ally was relieved to see her parents, but not as relieved as she was to see “Cameron!” 

“Ally! Oh, thank God,” he said. “I thought I told you not to move from your hiding spot.”

That just started the waterworks all over again. “Come here, princess,” said her father, taking her from Steve. “Thank you, Steve.” 

“It was no problem,” he replied. “She’s an absolute sweetheart. We’d help out anytime.” 

“Let’s hope you don’t have to,” said Amelia. “At least not like this.”

“Hopefully not like this,” he agreed. “I should probably go find Bucky and help out with everything else. She mentioned something about jumping from a tree earlier, by the way.” 

“We’ll make sure she’s okay. Thanks again.” 

Steve nodded and went on his way as Ally began to tell them all about what had happened, and how she’d had the best places to hide.

* * *

* * *

**Extra:**

About a week later, as Ally played with Crystal and Cameron, Cameron began to talk about his key card. 

“I still have to wait three weeks to get a new keycard,” he complained. “And I have to take a new picture and everything.” 

“Why do you need a new keycard?” asked Ally, filling her coloring page. 

“I lost mine after you took it,” he explained. “Which was smart, it’s okay. I’m not mad or anything.” 

“It’s not lost,” said Ally. “I think I just dropped it in Bucky’s closet. I had it when I went in.” 

“Everyone’s getting new keys anyways, Ally,” said Crystal. “It’s just gonna take a while for them to get to us junior agents. Don’t worry about it. We all have our normal IDs that we can show. Cameron’s being a drama king.” 

“Only because you’re my drama queen,” he retorted. 

“Is that so?” 

Ally looked up to see them leaning close to each other. “Ew, are you guys gonna kiss? I’m right here!” 

The two teenagers started laughing. “Never change, Ally,” said Crystal. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re coloring?” 

So Ally curled up at Crystal’s side and showed her the picture of the cat and dog and explained all the colors and the long story she’d come up with while coloring. When she was done, she invited the two for a game of hide and seek, which they hesitantly agreed on. 

“Go on and find a good place to hide,” said Cameron. And then he began counting. 


End file.
